Holy Water Bucket 1936

Robert W.R. Taylor made this watercolour of a ‘Holy Water Bucket’ sometime around 1896. The rose-copper colour of the pail shimmers from the paper, and I can almost feel the artist carefully building up the layers of translucent washes, letting the light reflect from the surface. Look closely, and you’ll see how he used a dry brush to create the illusion of texture, and how the blues and violets of the bucket’s interior suggest the cool stillness of water. I wonder what Taylor was thinking about when he painted this humble vessel? Was it simply an exercise in capturing the play of light on metal, or was he perhaps drawn to the bucket’s symbolic significance? Was he thinking about other painters and their still lifes? Painters are always in conversation with each other, across time and space, drawing inspiration and exchanging ideas. And like this watercolour, painting is an invitation to slow down, to look closely, and to find beauty in the everyday.